Merge Healthcare  was named the number one global market leader in providing vendor neutral archive (VNA) solutions by InMedica, a division of IMS Research.

iConnect VNA consolidates, standardizes and archives images and data from disparate picture archiving systems, specialties and sites, giving clinicians a consolidated view of all diagnostic images. And, being vendor agnostic, it also provides the flexibility to add or replace storage systems as needed due to growth or outdated solutions.

Merge’s iConnect VNA customers accounted for 37% of all studies archived in VNAs in 2011. In total Merge clients have stored over 200 million studies which equates to over 13 billion images. InMedica predicts that the market for VNA solutions will grow from 75 million studies in 2011 to 570 million studies by 2016, a 49.9% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).

The press release stated…

As the industry’s first true standalone vendor neutral archive, iConnect VNA has been successfully integrated with over seventy-five PACS vendors and specialty workstations at over 350 sites across the United States. In over half of iConnect VNA implementations, Merge’s customers have integrated third-party PACS systems with iConnect VNA.

I would like to know how Merge and/or IMS Research has defined  ‘true vendor neutral archive’.  The term means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. The article claims that Merge is the leader in VNA (vendor neutral archive), but not necessarily the largest PACS provider nor does it claim to manage the most images.  The statement is a reference as to the scope of their VNA business across their own customer sites.

“Our clients continue to add 150 million images every month to iConnect VNA. This volume accounts for over one third

of all studies archived in VNAs. That’s a phenomenal feat and we are proud to achieve this market leadership position,” said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. “As we continue our move to the cloud, the volume of clients and images we support validates our credibility as a provider, our ability to scale and our forward-thinking approach to healthcare.”

iConnect VNA is part of the iConnect suite, Merge’s comprehensive offering for viewing, sharing and archiving any type of image, anywhere, any time. It also includes iConnect® Access*, a zero-download DICOM image and XDS server and iConnect®Share, an Internet-based gateway for image sharing between enterprises. iConnect VNA acts as the backbone of an enterprise imaging strategy. With current trends in patient safety and healthcare reform as well as competition for referring physicians, the need for image sharing across the enterprise is more critical than ever.

*As of this writing iConnect Access is not FDA-cleared for diagnostic use on mobile devices.

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